So...they finally arrived. The Stillpoints distributor and a local dealer whom i have known for years but never done business. Armed with a dozen boxes of Stillpoints Ultra Vs...second time in over 20 years i think i've ever considered buying anything of scale brand new. They came to set up the Ultra Vs by unscrewing the entire spike and attachment into the base of the 600lb Wilson X1s...as an audition. If i did not like them...take them all out and back go the spikes.
We ended up doing one speaker at a time...since Stillpoints makes adaptors for nearly every screw hole...we used the ones for Wilson speakers and got to within a few millimeters on the same height as my original spike sets. First speaker...Left v Right...well, i had already decided there was no going back. The bass in the right was thick (as i have always known it was)...and the left was delineated and tight...an improvement of perhaps 30%. Further the left soundstage was back about another 3 feet relative to the Right speaker.
They then handed me an LP Isolator...normally for Turntables...but in my case to put on top of my Zanden Transport. Now bear in mind, the Zanden Transport is designed with alternating layers of 1" acrylic and 1" aluminum...4-5 layers. I then added HRS Nimbus couplers AND and HRS M3 isolation platform...all on top of a 400lb specially designed equipment rack which is further isolated on top of 1" of slate. Damn, if the bass did not tighten up again...about 10%-15%.
Interestingly...after setting up the Right speaker...and also putting 3 more under my Velodyne DD18 sub...i now hear a totally different MIDRANGE presentation...not in any way changed in terms of tonality or 'character'...but whereas before on deep house electronic music...things that sounded like sliding sheet metal...actually is more like a heavy zipper close-miked...you hear each individual bit of metal as something is slid across it. Violins have roisin and texture in ways they did not before.
I also use one Track as a reference which i have heard in the most detailed system ever...Audio Exotics in Hong Kong...and i am amazed at how far my system has come. In terms of instrumental separation and detail, i am now there...the soundstage is not as deep...but my room is also much smaller. Cool
Going next door...i dont hear 'long whumps' even on deep bass of house music...i can hear individual beats. Muting my Gryphon Colosseum amp...with just the DD18 playing...you hear detail even in very very deep bass *and my cut off is 39hz), you can hear instant stacaccto hits which normally sound like big bumps. Very cool.
Conclusion? In my room...and in that of a number of other large speaker and Wilson speaker owners i have spoken with...Stillpoints Ultra Vs are incredible. I am keeping them.
We ended up doing one speaker at a time...since Stillpoints makes adaptors for nearly every screw hole...we used the ones for Wilson speakers and got to within a few millimeters on the same height as my original spike sets. First speaker...Left v Right...well, i had already decided there was no going back. The bass in the right was thick (as i have always known it was)...and the left was delineated and tight...an improvement of perhaps 30%. Further the left soundstage was back about another 3 feet relative to the Right speaker.
They then handed me an LP Isolator...normally for Turntables...but in my case to put on top of my Zanden Transport. Now bear in mind, the Zanden Transport is designed with alternating layers of 1" acrylic and 1" aluminum...4-5 layers. I then added HRS Nimbus couplers AND and HRS M3 isolation platform...all on top of a 400lb specially designed equipment rack which is further isolated on top of 1" of slate. Damn, if the bass did not tighten up again...about 10%-15%.
Interestingly...after setting up the Right speaker...and also putting 3 more under my Velodyne DD18 sub...i now hear a totally different MIDRANGE presentation...not in any way changed in terms of tonality or 'character'...but whereas before on deep house electronic music...things that sounded like sliding sheet metal...actually is more like a heavy zipper close-miked...you hear each individual bit of metal as something is slid across it. Violins have roisin and texture in ways they did not before.
I also use one Track as a reference which i have heard in the most detailed system ever...Audio Exotics in Hong Kong...and i am amazed at how far my system has come. In terms of instrumental separation and detail, i am now there...the soundstage is not as deep...but my room is also much smaller. Cool
Going next door...i dont hear 'long whumps' even on deep bass of house music...i can hear individual beats. Muting my Gryphon Colosseum amp...with just the DD18 playing...you hear detail even in very very deep bass *and my cut off is 39hz), you can hear instant stacaccto hits which normally sound like big bumps. Very cool.
Conclusion? In my room...and in that of a number of other large speaker and Wilson speaker owners i have spoken with...Stillpoints Ultra Vs are incredible. I am keeping them.